Guilhem Fabre

Université du Havre/EHESS Centre Chine

The new cycle of reforms launched by the 3rd plenum of the 18th Central Comittee of the Chinese Communist Party in November 2013 aims to implement a transition from a growth model funded on accumulation to one based on redistribution of the the lion’s share of the state-party system. As we have seeen in a previous study1 , China’s elite have largely benefited from control of state sector assets, and manipulation of the factors market (land, labor and capital). Along with strong growth, which has allowed social mobility, the accumulation of wealth has benefited a minority of the population, creating some of the most flagrant social polarization, worldwide, a striking paradox for a regime led by a « communist » party. In this sense, the extent of inequality represents a challenge to the regime’s legitimacy.